


Glutton for Punishment

by hovercraft



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Fluff, Ritsuka is a rude master in this one, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 09:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20405734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hovercraft/pseuds/hovercraft
Summary: She could smell the madness on him, despite his ability to speak and speak well.Request for nerdsofafeather on tumblr.





	Glutton for Punishment

**Author's Note:**

> I opened requests and this is what I get to write. Oh well, give me a crack pairing and I'll write it as seriously as possible! It's my duty!

The second archive.

In Chaldea, it took the form of a warehouse-like abandoned office. It was where servants who couldn’t be trusted or weren’t needed sent. The fact that it had two occupants spoke a lot of their master. One was Spartacus, the bronze berserker that no matter what their master did, didn’t seem to have a use for. The other was the incredibly useful but unshakably dubious Kiara Sessyoin.

The second archive was lonely. Very few servants visited because of the latter servant, who was once a beast they had all fought together and bloodily. Kiara felt distinctly lonely, wanting to resonate with her master after _everything_ they’d been through together, but their Master’s look of disgust upon summoning her… and telling her she could work in the second archive from now on! What a waste of her talent, her precious abilities, but she supposed it was merited. Kiara had earned that scorn on her own. She had basically wanted everything in her own narcissism, now tempered by the fact that she was a servant.

How badly she wanted to cheer her Master on! To both give in to their wildest desires and resist them entirely, at odds with herself while being true to her very core, the devilish Bodhisattva. As she went over Chaldea’s old records and contemplated her only companion, she was approached by him once.

“Are you an oppressor?” He asked. She could smell the madness on him, despite his ability to speak and speak well.

“Hmm…” A bloodbath would be fun, but a mess to clean up. “On the contrary, I want everyone’s freedom to be able to do as they wish. To kill, and to be killed. All are within the rights of humanity to do to others as others will do to them.”

“Hm!” He seemed surprised by her answer, but not put off by it. “Our master… do you think they’re an oppressor?”

“Not so much that as a coward,” Kiara said, aloof. “To not take advantage of the powers of berserkers and beasts, to banish us into this small corner of Chaldea… there may be a day when they take us out of here and we meet battle head on. Are you prepared for that day?”

“Of course! I will use my love to free those that are oppressed.”

“Your _love_?” Kiara asked, subtly interested.

“Of course…” His body was grey-skinned and his shock of blond hair stood out from the rest of it. He was dressed shamefully, which Kiara had absolutely no problem with. “My love can banish all enemies, just like in the ring back in the old days! My pride has no limits! If there’s anything I can do to aid Master, I will do it—unless they prove themselves to be unworthy.”

Kiara had taken him for a boneheaded man, but found herself more and more intrigued by his mentality, no doubt enhanced by his madness—she wouldn’t have an earnest conversation with him, for sure, but she could have her fun. Rebellion didn’t seem so bad, locked in the second Archive like wild Beasts, where they could do little else but have their fun. There was no escape until Master unlocked the door and threw someone else in, or let them out, but Kiara would bide her time with this man until she could prove to master there was a use for someone like her in Chaldea—even at their look of disgust, she had felt such pride.

\--

“Tell me about your life,” Kiara asked sweetly, sitting upon a desk next to an ancient computer.

Spartacus would tell her of his glorious battles in the ring, how he’d been bound in chains to fight for the pleasure of the Romans, how he’d always emerged victorious and how he’d lead the rebellion of the slaves along with him to freedom—at least until the very moment he died. Kiara found it more fascinating than she’d initially given credit for. When asked about herself, she would simply say she was once an accomplished hacker (whatever that meant to him) who’d turned into the very opposite of the Buddha (again, meaning little to him) and had ascended to Nirvana (once more, a mystery).

“You’re a very peaceful woman. Frail, but I can see the strength in your eyes.”

“Can you?” Kiara asked, leaning on her knees with her fingers laced beneath her chin.

“You’re someone very powerful, aren’t you? Yes, despite your weak body, you hold something much stronger than what meets the eye. A warrior knows.”

Kiara tittered, knowing exactly what he meant but not desiring to hint at it any further. This was her only companion, after all. To push him away would make her stay in the Second Archive much harder. “A shame, since I mean so little to our master.”

“They fear you?”

“I disgust them.”

“I don’t see why!” He exclaimed. “There’s nothing revolting about you. You believe in the freedoms of people—the ultimate choices everyone has to make!”

Her line about killing or being killed… right, she supposed they’d mean something to a gladiator. “Perhaps master is made of some kind of different moral fiber than the two of us. That’s why we’re locked away here.”

“Perhaps there is something you can teach me to pass time?”

“Oh,” She smiled. “I suppose there is.”

\--

Cards.

There was a deck on the shelf, and Kiara, finding herself falling further and further into her human roots, had taken up the pack and taught him how to play blackjack. Sometimes, she would let him win and feel victory over something for the first time in forever—sometimes it was too tempting and her cards were too perfect to let him win. He understood simple instructions, and even though he desired to swing a sword around, this was one of the few ways they could pass time.

Until one day, Kiara had cleared out several shelves to make a space between them. She didn’t care about destroying property in here—servants didn’t even come in here often, let alone staff.

“Very well, Spartacus. Let us fight.”

He pulled his sword from the ether, looking more and more excited. “Really? You wish to do battle with me?”

“I can tell the needs of others… I can see within their very hearts. My clairvoyance allows me that much. You need to fight like you need air. I will allow you to try and bury that blade of yours in my heart.”

He needed no more instruction than that—Kiara was powerful, dodging every bit he threw at her with hands rising from the ground and grabbing him back into place, leaving him slicing them to break free and try to reach her. His stamina was weak, far weaker than Kiara’s, and for a Gladiator, his strength was pitiful. This poor soul, trying to reach the greatest heights with the lowest ability. Kiara couldn’t help but take pity on him.

Perhaps that was foolish of her. In all her guarding, she failed to see the sword coming straight at her, tilting her head to the side as it scarred one of her horns. Her immaculate form, damaged! Sure, her spirit origin would heal it, but she couldn’t help but uproariously attack back, knocking him down flat on his feet.

“Aah, I thought you bragged about slaying beasts…?” A thick amusement came from her voice. “Am I not a beast? Lift your sword and strike me again.”

“No.”

An odd word from a berserker. “What?”

“Kiara… is no oppressor. I’m tired of this fight.”

“Get up and strike me again.” She ordered, but he only laughed, sitting on the floor.

“No. Get out the cards.”

“What if I told you…” She was about to say how she wanted to oppress the world, how she held a universe in her belly and how selfishly she wanted all things to be hers. But then their days would be fighting endlessly. Tearing at each other limb from limb until they got bored and went to their own separate corners of the room—and he’d never get bored.

It was also the first time Kiara had something resembling a friend.

“Nevermind.” She said with finality. “I’ll teach you something new today.”

\--

It felt like ages before Ritsuka came to collect.

At first, Kiara thought Ritsuka finally had enough of Blackbeard and was going to throw him in to ruin their fun. Now that was someone both Kiara and Spartacus could kill infinitely without ever losing the pleasure of doing so. With a rude look, Ritsuka gestured to Kiara.

“I’m going to use some materials to make you stronger, but—one move against me, and you’ll be—”

“No, master,” Kiara responded evenly, leaning her head on Spartacus’ shoulder. “I think not.”

“What…?”

“I’m happy here. And I know you won’t bring him out with me.” She gestured to the man next to her. “So I decline your offer of bringing me out of the Archives. You have Meltryllis, don’t you? You don’t need another Alter Ego.”

Ritsuka scoffed. “He can come too.”

“Well then,” Kiara stood up, gesturing to the man next to her. “Let’s see what freedom tastes like, shall we?”

\--

No one understood it. No one possibly could.

The basic root of all evil with a gladiator who could barely speak beyond asking people to fight. They were inseparable, and Kiara wouldn’t have it any other way. She wouldn’t take people talking crudely about them, and she was quick to shut down any notions about their relationship that people would also very crudely guess.

“I bet it’s for his muscles. Have you seen—” And Kiara would threaten Blackbeard from afar and he’d immediately shut his mouth, something few people ever had the power to do.

Perhaps it was in the quiet company that Kiara found peace. She’d been locked in the Second Archives for so long that she’d made a friend she hadn’t expected—as time and cordiality forced them together, so did their opposing natures. Naturally, she had lied to him about everything she was and ever would be, but he wouldn’t believe other servants telling him otherwise. Their bond had become that strong.

“I don’t get it,” Ritsuka asked finally, having mellowed out around Kiara in general. “What do you see in him? You’re polar opposites to just about everything you are.”

“Well, lying is a big factor.”

“I got that much.”

“But… he gave me a chance when my own Master didn’t,” She said it with such hidden aggression that Ritsuka couldn’t help but feel it. “When you banish people to that room, all they have is each other. My, my master is so cruel… but then again, I knew that from the moment you summoned me. You greedily only want servants you find attractive or find powerful. Even though I’m both, you were disgusted with me. Ahh… to be that kind of person. I suppose your greed is just another part of you, master.”

Kiara saw him at the doorway and set the book she’d been flipping through back on the shelf. “It’s time for me to take my leave, Master.”

“You’re dismissed.”

Ritsuka couldn’t help but watch as the two of them walked away, wondering what just was it about the second Archive that made servants bond together. When she’d thrown in people before, they usually came out closer than normal, and harbored resentment for Ritsuka. There was truth in Kiara’s words, too… Ritsuka, for all the good she’d done in the world, had her vices, and that was summoning servants she wanted rather than what she needed. She knew Kiara would never quite easily obey her on the battlefield, but it had been unfair of her to force her into the Second Archive. Maybe if it hadn’t been for that, they’d be friends.

As it stood now, Kiara had taken a gladiator for her closest confidant. A strange choice, but Ritsuka thought the two of them as strange anyway.

They might as well fit together, she guessed.


End file.
